Looking for info on CWD. The State of New York had found CWD in two captive herds in Onieda County. Seems they were ranching for profit in venison and the wildlife dept also brought in abandoned fawns to be raised and released into the wild if possible. One rancher gave another one a couple of deer, as I understand it, that infected his herd also. The infection was discovered in testing done by the State . It was then decided to cull as many deer as possible arouind the farm and through out the county in attemps to find how wide spread the disease had gotten. They found two wild deer infected. Both I believe were near the ranches and could possibly have been released deer raised from wild fawns.
The end results so far from this is my State of massachusettes and the state of Vt. have instituded a ban on the importation of deer taken anywhere in the state of Ny. If you kill a deer in NY the animal must be processed in NY. The meat deboned, the skull cap cleaned of membrane and hair I don't know if it has to be packaged. My crew hunts on the tri state area of western mass,southern Vt and eastern Ny. At any time, the season is open in two states at once, like Vt NY or NY Ma
The deer I kill in Vt at 7am was in Ny at 7pm the previous day. I'm sure you get the drift. Any ways, I know it has been a problem in the west and mid-west and hope some of you guys will respond.

The government is VERY interested in this disease. They are not sure how it is spread as of yet, but the suspicion is through food or contact.

There is some information available at the CDC (Center for disease Control). Their interest is primarily in relation to the disease's potential to spread to the human population. Link below is one article on the disease (if it doesn't work, just past it in your browser), and search their web site as there are a number of articles on the subject.

Carbine, sorry I was not clear, actually, Iwas ranting so much I forgot to ask. Feds tick me off and I get started LOL.
Nobody seems to know where this disease came from or even what it is.Some say it is caused ny a spongi as in mad cow and some say it is viral. Has it been established which it is yet?. I was hopeing to get some response from people in the states where it is the most prevelant. Does culling the herds in areas where it has been found, work to stop the spread? Have any states other than the two I mentioned,banned the importation of deer shot by sportsmen in another state? If so ,did this prove to help eradicate the disease?
The Dept of Fisheries and Wildlife is having a meeting open to the public the 6th of Sept. I intend to attend and would like to go as well informed as possible. The banning of the deer killed in NY effectively stops my hunting in that State as I refuse to pay 60.00 to have a deer butchered especially considering other deer killed in that state would be processed next to mine. duh does cross contamination come to mind. Add insult to injury, Oneida County borders no state that has insituted the bans.
My two cents trapper

It is caused by a prion, which is a proteinaceous infectious particle. These are infectious self-reproducing protein structures. What is scary as stink about them, is that they are nearly impossible to kill. Clorox or heat won't touch these little fellas. Whatever brain matter, that is infected with prions, touches is permanently unable to again be used by anyone. Chronic wasting disease is said to exist in soil for up to 60 years, and still be virulent. I.e., it should make people nervous that all the mad cows and deer are processed using the same equipment. It that equipment is contaminated, it CAN NOT be dissenfected.

References? (Not being pushy, just wondering as the disease was discovered more recently than 60 years ago.)

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In a few years when the dust finally clears and people start counting their change there is a pretty good chance that President Obama may become known as The Great Absquatulator. You heard it first here on TFL.

You're talking about the prion disease, or more pointedly the cannibal's disease, or...Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease--1940-ish. It later turned up in sheep in the 70's, then in cows--but only after cows had been fed the remains of dead, dying or diseased sheep.

Deer are not by nature cannibalistic, so they shouldn't have gotten this. My guess is deer ranchers often used cattle and/or horse feed to beef up their 'managed' herd, not knowing the prion disease existed in the feed they were using. Probably been in deer almost as long as cattle if that's the case--just noone would have noticed until mad cow became well known. Then all that was needed was for some of the 'managed' herd to get into the regular deer population and have offspring, which they would since the does only need find a herd and any escaped 'managed' bucks are larger than any naturally raised bucks. Didn't this get started in deer in the midwest--now what part of the country are most of the 'managed' herds located again? Also, an infected deer dies and returns to earth leaving a small pocket of really lush vegetation where the carcas used to lay. Then other deer become infected by eating said vegetation, as the prion will lie dormant in the soil for quite some time and would also be in the vegetation as any other nutrient localized to that pocket of soil.

One other factor--and this one really pisses me: people that feed deer. Community where I live a lot of folks buy feed bags--so popular that some bags are actually labelled 'deer feed' --and spread or toss out for wild deer. Well, wouldn't those feed bags have been cattle or horse feed, agian contaminated with our prion friends?

Scrapie (the name for it in sheep) has been around for over 250yrs cattle beca\me infected through the demand for cheap protein rich feeds and dead animal by products are cheaper than natural vegetable proteins, so cheaper feed!
I think that the guess that artificial feeding of deer is where it originates from is right. what a lot of people dont know is there are variants of this in many animals including North American squirrels. I read an article by some US medical journal where there were more cases of CJD in people who regularly ate squirrel than those who didn't ( dont eat squirrel now).
More information here if your interested :- http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/f...ahscrapie.html

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